A single judicious strike to the proper area of the body. This is distinct from the Tap on the Head in that the effect is achieved through some sort of nerve manipulation, rather than simple blunt force trauma. This trope is most commonly seen in Chinese wuxia films, but it has made appearances in other media as well. Similar to the Touch of Death, in the Far East this trope stems from the belief that Pressure Points or nerve clusters control the physical functioning of a person's body, and that precision manipulation of these points can allow one to manipulate the body itself.

Muten/Master Roshi of Dragon Ball, as Jackie Chun, can apparently paralyze someone by tapping a pressure point on their forehead.

There's also General Blue's secret technique which consists in a paralysis-inducing gaze. However, he must keep his focus on his target, or else the technique will be dispelled.

The Hyuga clan from Naruto specializes in attacks like this, as Neji and Hinata can utilize their Byakugan to see specific pressure points on their targets.

Haku utilized senbon to attack pressure points on his enemies. His signature move was to place his opponent in a false-death state, thus removing them from the battle.

Happosai and Cologne from Ranma ½ are masters in the use of, among other things, pressure points, and often knock people out by tapping a spot on the victim's nape whenever they're too busy to have a straight-up confrontation. It's implied that Ranma can use these too, but the one time he attempted it, he was interrupted.

Tōfū-sensei also uses paralysing pressure points in a late episode of the anime.

Not only in late episodes - his first appearance has him induce a time-delayed reaction on Ranma, making his legs give out and forcing him to be carried home by Akane.

Toriko has the concept of Knocking, a non-lethal method of hunting in which a device called a Knocking Gun (basically a Stun Gun) shoots biodegradable needles into an animal (or person's) nerves. An expert at this method is "Knocking Master" Jirou.

Impact Knocking is a sub-technique performed with bare hands (probably via Pressure Points) as shown by Teppei, the grandson of the aforementioned Jirou.

The titular Toriko can use Knocking with the index finger of his "Fork" hand.

Jirou uses a technique called "Grand Knocking" which somehow paralyzes THE EARTH ITSELFcausing worldwide natural disasters! After he removes the restraining seals, his abilities gets even more ridiculous - he gains ability to paralyze creatures with just his breath, stop flow of time, and even damage in his own body. If something moves - Jirou probably knows, how to stop it with his bare hands.

Stain's Quirk, Bloodcurdle, allows him to paralyze anyone whose blood he ingests (which he usually does by Licking the Blade after slashing his opponent). The duration of the paralysis depends on the victim's blood type, with type B having the longest duration and O the shortest.

Habuko, one of Tsuyu's friends shown in a bonus chapter, has a paralyzing Quirk. However, it requires direct eye contact and only lasts three seconds.

Rawhide Kid once fought a villain called Scorpion who was an expert pharmacist. He developed a gun that fired plastic capsules containing a quick-acting paralytic. The capsule melted almost instantly, and the drug took effect as soon as the victim was struck by the capsule. Scorpion would later change his alias to Sting-Ray and go on to fight the Phantom Rider.

The comic version of Kevin from Sin City apparently has the ability to make limbs go numb from certain strikes.

One of Miles Morales' abilities in Ultimate Spider-Man is a "venom sting" that can paralyze opponents. It is capable of quickly knocking out many of his opponents, though larger and tougher ones like Venom or Giant Woman take a little more effort.

Films — Animation

In Kung Fu Panda, both Master Oogway and the main villain Tai Lung are able to paralyze their enemies with a series of pinpoint nerve strikes. Hero Po is completely immune thanks to his thick layer of fat.

Films — Live-Action

This trope is named for the signature Called Attack of the main villain Master PainBetty in Kung Pow! Enter the Fist, a parody of 70's Kung Fu films. The attack had Betty smack the Chosen One on the shoulder blade with his gauntlet while it glowed, rendering his arm useless. This made the Chosen One just flop his arms around uselessly until he's knocked out.

In Serenity, the Operative paralyzes people by pinching selective nerve clusters, rendering them unable to escape or resist while he executes them. He's defeated by Mal after his attack fails to work; Mal's nerve cluster was moved in surgery due to a war injury.

In Kiss of the Dragon, Jet Li combines this with acupuncture needles to paralyze his enemies. The titular "Kiss of the Dragon" is a Touch of DeathDangerous Forbidden Technique that uses the same principles, which he uses on the main villain at the end of the movie for no apparent reason other than the coolness effect of the guy's head exploding.

It's not obvious, but the commentary mentions a justification - Li's character gets shot in the arm as he starts to move, so he performs a technique that doesn't use his arm (the Kiss of the Dragon has him use his teeth to insert the needle). A better reason might be that he wanted to kill the villain, but not in front of the little girl he was rescuing, so he used a fatal technique with a delay.

A similar paralyzing technique with needles is used by Hayate and Kasumi in DOA: Dead or Alive. During a flashback, Hayate tosses a bunch of needles in the air in slow-mo, then is able to grab them one at a time and jab them into the bad guys' bodies to disable them. During the climax, they use the needles to paralyze the Big Bad and leave him to die when his island base self-destructs.

Jade Fox in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon uses a quick series of nerve strikes to completely freeze an opponent on the spot. Li Mubai uses a similar sequence of strikes on him to reverse the paralysis.

It's apparently so effective (and well known) that Li Mubai threatens people by pointing two fingers at them.

In Iron Man, Obadiah uses a device of some sort that has this effect. It works using sound, and Obadiah protects himself from the gadget's effects with what appear to be fancy earplugs. Specifically, the frequencies used severely disrupt the inner ear, leading to severe vertigo, disorientation and lack of balance. Of course given Tony's overall reaction, it would be a safe guess that it does a bit more than described.

The Full Body Bind Curse, as the name implies, paralyzes opponents while leaving them conscious.

Making direct eye contact with a Basilisk is typically lethal, but if non-direct eye contact is made (like in a mirror or reflection), the victim is just Petrified, leaving them paralyzed and apparently unconscious.

The Vulcan Nerve Pinch is spoofed in the Beavis And Butthead book "The Butt Files". In a Star Trek parody, Butt-head uses the pinch on Beavis just for fun. When a female crew members asks if he's okay, Butt-head hits on her and grabs her butt, knocking her out. Then he decides to spank his monkey... and knocks himself out.

Brown Girl in the Ring: Synapse Cordons and their portable version, the Dazer. Synapse Cordons uses "baseball-sized lump[s] of what looked like modelling clay" to create "stake[s] sprouting a good eight feet high" that define the cordon's borders, and kicking the cordon creates a "synapse surge of current", a.k.a a "daze charge" inside the field, that "short-circuit[s] [the] neuromuscular system".

In Super Powereds, Camille can do it by virtue of being an injury absorber. A single touch of skin-on-skin (or, later, on a special conductive fabric Will makes for her, so she can preserve a modicum of modesty) is enough to disable all but the toughest humans and Supers by giving them some of the injuries she has absorbed over the years. She usually goes with broken bones and a mild concussion. In the Distant Finale, she becomes a feared Hero named Adrestia ("she who cannot be escaped"), capable of stopping any criminal Super with a touch.

Live-Action TV

In Star Trek, the Vulcan Nerve Pinch serves as the "render fully unconscious" version of this move, and was invented on the spot by Leonard Nimoy, who felt that the blunt trauma Tap on the Head did not fit with Spock's character. Originally, it was explained as a combination of Vulcans' extensive knowledge of pressure points on humanoid species combined with their telepathic abilities, but the latter part is often ignored (for example, Michael Burnham of Star Trek: Discovery, a human raised on Vulcan, can perform the technique fairly well, as can Picard after mind-melding with Sarek. Data can do it to, to Spock's approval, but it's not clear if he learned it from Spock or simply had the needed knowledge of pressure points. At any rate, it is something that can definitely be learned.)

The Discovery series also features a Klingon weapon that paralyzes the victim. It's harmless at first, but if the victim isn't released in time, organs such as the heart and lungs will also paralyze, leading to death.

Xena: Warrior Princess: Xena was familiar with pressure point techniques due to time spent studying and conquering in the Far East, but mostly preferred to simply hack her enemies up with good ol' fashioned bladed weapons.

In Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Same Time, Same Place", the demon Gnarl paralyzed victims with a touch so it could feed on them at leisure. To the amusement of at least one character, paralyzed victims are poseable.

The killer in the CSI: NY pilot was *trying* to do this to achieve locked-in syndrome on his victims, but he kept screwing up and killing them, except the final one.

There was an episode of The Adventures of Superman that dealt with a professional wrestler who used a move called The Paralyzer that was sending his opponents to the hospital. This episode portrayed pro wrestling as a legit sport and not "sports entertainment."

Supernatural: The angels have the ability to render people unconscious by touch, though they don't use this nearly as often as their killing touch because most of the show's angels are, well, fanatical pricks. Castiel demonstrates the non-lethal version on Bobby on his first appearance.

In Doctor Who, the Doctor practiced "Venusian Karate", which allowed him to instantly render an opponent unconscious with a single tap.

Myths & Religion

In some versions of the Hand of Glory legend, anyone who gazes into its flames or even those who just happen to be in same building as the hand are rendered unable to move until the flames are extinguished.

The Bible: In 1st Kings, a prophet of God who was sent from Judah to prophesy about the altar made to the idol King Jeroboam had created for worship had caused the king's hand to shrivel up when the king pointed toward the prophet to have him arrested, paralyzing the king's arm until the prophet prayed to restore the arm to normal.

The hold person and hold monster line of spells are the most commonly used for this effect by PCs. They got and more more nerfed with passing editions since, well, a paralyzed opponent is easy to finish off. Although this being a mental effect, a lot of creatures happen to be immune to it.

The Forgotten Realms spell paralysis has this effect when the caster touches a victim.

Liches can paralyse any creature they touch. This paralysis is permanent unless magically cured and can easily be mistaken for death.

Several creatures can do this, like ghouls or ghasts or carrion crawlers or... well, too many to list.

Assassins (and most other classes with the ability) can use their Death Attack to paralyze rather than kill. Most don't.

In the 1st Edition Oriental Adventures supplement, the Paralyzing Touch martial arts ability allowed the user to paralyze an opponent by putting pressure on specific nerve junctions. The victim couldn't move for up to an hour afterwards.

In Exalted, this is one of the things that the Ebon Shadow Style of Celestial Martial Arts can do.

GURPS: Paralyzing a person limb by limb is one use of Pressure Secrets. There's also the Partial Petrification spell.

Feng Shui: The Point Blockage fu power is a very nasty attack from the Healthy Tiger path that allows its user to paralyze foes. One of the very first powers on the healing path of the Healthy Tiger, Flow Restoration, is one of the best ways to free someone from this form of paralysis.

Champions. A power such as Drain, Transfer of Destruction can be used to eliminate a target's movement ability and the power Entangle can be defined as physically paralyzing the victim. Early editions of the game had the Mental Paralysis power, which made you think you couldn't move.

Pathfinder: Thornies are quadrupedal fungus creatures that can inject a paralyzing toxin through their thorns, which their vegepygmy masters use to help subdue victims to expose to the russet mold that spawns them.

Shadowrun. The physical adept ability Nerve Strike reduces the target's Quickness. If its Quickness is reduced to zero it is paralyzed.

Video Games

Drunk On Nectar features a mud dauber wasp with a paralyzing sting as part of its insectoid cast.

The Force Stun ability in Knights of the Old Republic deadens enemy senses, perception, and movement, good for avoiding fights or making an escape.

In Fallout 3, if you specialize in Unarmed combat, you can get the ability "Paralyzing Palm" which sometimes makes your VATS unarmed attack freeze the opponent in place. You can even do it to Yao Guais and Deathclaws.

Pokémon has the Status Condition Paralysis, which reduces speed by 75% and prevents action 25% of the time. It can be caused by the moves Force Palm, Body Slam, Bounce, Dragon Breath, Glare, Lick,and Stun Spore, as well as numerous electric-type and electric-themed attacks, and a few Abiities.

In Super Punch-Out!!, the Bruiser brothers can render one of your arms useless for ten seconds, making it impossible to punch with it or to block. The arm thus "broken" turns red until it heals.

In Jade Empire, Paralysing Palm is a support style (i.e. one that does no physical damage) that does this. Excellent for Cherry Tapping.

In the Monster Hunter series, quite a few weapons are capable of paralyzing enemies, though it takes quite a few hits to leave a monster twitching in place. Of course, the monsters these weapons are made from can also paralyze you.

Of course not a single one of them has a problem with murdering her and none of them attack each other.

Subverted in Dwarf Fortress: Giant Cave Spider venom is a paralytic that's more effective the smaller the target is. For anything smaller than the grizzly-sized spider itself it causes full body paralysis... which including paralyzing the LUNGS, causing death by suffocation.

World of Warcraft's Monk class has this as an ability that can paralyze briefly or for longer depending on use and is visually implied to rely on acupuncture.

The Stasis ability completely stops enemies from moving or attacking and leaves them vulnerable when it wears off, at the cost of making them invincible for the attack's duration (they can be damaged, though, in the first game with an upgrade, and in the third game).

The Seeker Swarms deployed by the Collectors in Mass Effect 2 paralyze their victims with a sting, leaving them trapped in a semi-aware state.

Hell(p)'s № 4 can paralyze people with his saliva. Much like some Amazonian tribes use curare, № 4 briefly licks his fork before stabbing an opponent with it, causing a fully-body paralysis within seconds.

Ki mistress Chaka learned this trick in her first week at Superhero School Whateley Academy in the Whateley Universe, when a ninja mutant thought she would hold still while he did this to her. In a school full of mutants, there are people it does not work on.

In Twig, Gladys Shipman invented a swarm of insects capable of injecting people with poisons that had this effect. Initially, she'd intended to use it as a means of delivering vaccinations en masse, but in order to get budget she instead marketed it as a nonlethal method of disabling enemies. She later applies similar concepts using spiders, which inject people with paralyzing venom in their sleep and cocoon them in their own flesh, allowing her employers to capture entire downs in one night.

Dark Chick Ty Lee uses chi-blocking pressure-point strikes as her signature attacks, which allow her to paralyze people, and/or take away their bending. However, she has the ability to separate the two, and take away bending or movement without affecting each other.

The shirshu (AKA June's giant mole thing) can paralyze you by hitting you with its tongue. Ouch.

In "Castle Mane-ia", Twilight Sparkle uses her telekinesis to this effect, freezing all her panicking friends in place while allowing their eyes and mouths to move.

In "The Hooffields and the McColts", she does this to two whole feuding clans! Very impressive, although the number of ponies affected makes it quite a strain on her to keep it up for any length of time.

Donita Donata, fashion-designer villain on Wild Kratts, uses a "pose beam" to paralyze animals for use as living clothing accessories. It's also been turned on the heroes on many occasions, and occasionally on Donita and/or her henchman.

Real Life

Wasps are known to use this method against a staggering variety of prey. Corpses have a bad tendency to decompose, so to keep the meat fresh until their young are ready to feed, these wasps will instead paralyze their quarries and seal them away with the eggs. The offspring will then devour the victim alive upon emergence.

The well-known Sleeper Hold of Professional Wrestling fame could be considered this, though it works by restricting blood flow to the brain, rather than affecting nerve signals.

Similarly, many use a "nerve strike/pinch" type of signature maneuver, obviously playing up to this trope, especially those with a martial arts gimmick.

Stun guns, on the other hand, do work against the nervous system. The electrical shock overwhelms it with sensory input, resulting in short-lived paralysis. Although, contrary to Hollywood, this actually wears off in a few seconds. What keeps the target down? Why, the blinding pain, of course!

This depends on whether the "stun gun" in use is an actual stungun (handheld, physical contact needed to work) or a taser. While a handheld stungun works only as long as you keep contact, the actual duration of stun/disorientation/nausea depends largely on where you hit, in addition to the voltage. Which means that knowing what portions of the body various nerve clusters run through can improve the effect. A taser, on the other hand, fires barbed spikes connecting to the weapon. Meaning that you can continue shocking as long as is needed (or wanted, as seen in Johnny Knoxville's initial Jackass stunt).

Also, stun guns work through the sensory nervous system, while tasers work through the motor nervous system. Stun guns don't actually physically stop an assailant (they work through pain compliance), so an assailant with enough adrenaline/pain resistance can actually continue fighting even sustained contact with a high voltage stun gun. Tasers actually physically disrupt your body movements by flooding your motor nervous system with electricity, stopping a person much more reliably.

A precise rap to the sides of the neck over the carotid sinus can cause a vaso vagal reaction that, if applied in the heat of combat, can render someone precipitously unconscious. (Of course, it can easily be fatal...)

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Queen Bee

Queen Bee's superpower "Venom" is able to paralyze one person with her stinger.